There are many factors that contribute to the decision to introduce, pilot and scale up an educational policy or program. In many countries around the world, there is a lack of appropriate data available to support decision makers in investing limited resources with the best possible outcome for students. This brown bag seminar is about conducting monitoring and evaluation in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Specifically, Dr. Sonia Ben Jaafar will share some of her experiences in moving from OISE to the Middle East and working on projects to build systematic program M&E for education projects in various countries including the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, East Africa, Syria, Myanmmar, KSA, the UAE and Oman. Specifically, this seminar will focus on how to maintain the integrity of the research and ethical protocols while addressing the reality on the ground, donor demands and political interests with respect to the results of an independent evaluation.

Sonia Ben Jaafar has extensive experience in educational evaluations in various contexts. She has a deep understanding of educational development and how to measure effect within complex systems. Dr. Ben Jaafar has developed expertise in designing and conducting mixed-methods educational evaluations that examine the difference in difference impact of given programmes on disenfranchised populations with special consideration to gender analysis. She has recently designed the monitoring and evaluation plan for the Girls’ Education Challenge in Myanmar for the Department approved by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the UK Department for International Development.

Prior to joining EduEval, Dr. Ben Jaafar was an independent evaluator who was responsible for supporting and conducting educational evaluations for development programmes such as the pan-African evaluation of the Gender-Responsive Pedagogy Model for the Forum for African Women Educationalists and the Evaluation of British Council’s Connecting Classrooms for the Institute of Education, University of London. She also supported the Aga Khan Foundation in Geneva to build a central systematic program monitoring and evaluation across EEC programs in African and Asia.

Dr. Ben Jaafar is an advocate for rigorous monitoring and evaluation in educational development. She is an active member of the MENA Evaluation Association (EvalMENA) representing it in the GCC and in 2013, she was elected for a 3-year term at the Executive Board of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS). In addition to her community work, Dr. Ben Jaafar teaches assessment and evaluation courses at Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University in Dubai, writes a blog with a readership of approximately 20,000 and offers several workshops on how to conduct M&E in the education field.

Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are rapidly growing economies with diverse ethnic and linguistic populations. In both, the need for skilled labour has increased the importance of higher education for national development goals. Lacking the capacity to provide public higher education for all their citizens, both countries have recruited foreign institutions to educate those who do not have access to public higher education. This presentation examines the experiences of students at Australian and British international branch-campuses (IBCs) in the UAE and Malaysia in order to understand the influence enrolment at an IBC has on students’ identities.

Grace Karram Stephenson is a PhD candidate in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, at OISE in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Her research areas include the internationalization of higher education, branch-campus communities, study abroad design and marketing, college student development and spirituality, and university governance. This broad range of topics related to post-secondary education is held together by overarching philosophical questions about the purpose of the university. From January – June 2014 Grace visited the UAE and Malaysia interviewing students and faculty at international branch-campuses (IBCs) for her PhD fieldwork. Her dissertation focuses on the identity construction of minority students at Western IBCs in non-Western nations.

Before starting her PhD studies full-time Grace worked as the administrator for the Comparative, International and Development Education Centre at OISE. The centre houses a dynamic community of students and faculty devoted to researching education around the world. Prior to her time at OISE, Grace coordinated international university programs in the USA and Fiji Islands

“All you need to know about applying for and attending conferences – CIES and CIESC in particular”

Vandra Masemann, Ph.D. Adjunct Associate Professor, CIDE

Conferences are an indispensable part of every CIDE student’s professional development. This seminar will give an introduction to students who may never have thought about attending professional conferences before. It will also provide encouragement for those who want to improve their abstracts and presentations. Through every phase of the process – submission of the abstract, preparing the paper, negotiating the networking

Vandra Masemann is an anthropologist who has worked in the fields of comparative education, multicultural and anti-racist education, and international and global education. Her Ph.D. thesis was an ethnography of a girls’ boarding school in West Africa, and she has devoted a considerable portion of her career to advocating the uses of ethnographic and other qualitative methods in research in comparative education. She has taught at the Faculty of Education, University of Toronto, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Pittsburgh, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the Florida State University, and is presently Adjunct Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She was President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (1987-1991) and its Secretary General (1996-2000), the Comparative and International Education Society (1990-1991), and the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (1985-1987).

Tuesday September 27, 2016 । 5:30-7:30 pm Chair: Dr. Kathy Bickmore

mHealth and Empowerment Education in the Rainbow Nation: A study of the CHAT program in South Africa

Robin M. McGeough, MA Candidate, OISE/CIDE

Maternal and child health and nutrition disparities remain prominent influences in sustained high infant mortality rates for children under five living with HIV in South Africa. In addressing healthy caregiver and child knowledge and behavior regarding disease management and nutrition, empowerment education offers opportunities to involve diverse groups of people in an effort to identify problems, critically reflect upon social and historical barriers, to envision a healthier self and community, while developing an active component in achieving health goals. This presentation will explore the role of the Community Health Worker Assistive Technologies (CHAT) program to open space for critical reflection and dialogue as a means of empowerment within health literacy by community health workers using educational media delivered by handheld tablets and booklets in South Africa. Videos recorded of household visits elicited inferential statistics regarding media usage, and further thematic areas emerging from participant/community health worker interactions. This thesis suggests educational media developed to provoke references to participant context can offer improved quality of care and opportunities for empowering dialogue.

Robin McGeough is undertaking his MA degree through the collaborative programs offered under the Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development (CSTD) and Comparative, International and Development Education (CIDE) program at OISE. His research is focussed on the effectiveness and impact of empowerment education and mobile health platforms within health literacy programs in developing country contexts, particularly in South Africa. Working with empowerment education programs in Rwanda, Ghana, Japan and Canada, Robin is keen to explore how education can offer opportunities for improved understandings of health literacy to overcome systemic and institutional barriers and improve contextual and cultural reflexivity of curricular developments for marginalized groups.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, PEACEBUILDING AND DEMOCRATIZATION THROUGH COMMUNITY-BASED SPORT: PERSPECTIVES OF GLOBAL SOUTH FACILITATORS IN RURAL NAMIBIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

Tanya Urbancic, MA Candidate, CTL/CIDE

Sport can be an important tool to facilitate learning for transformative social development, as a catalyst for development and peace in post-conflict contexts. This research involves semi-structured interviews regarding the first-hand accounts and perspectives, in relation to facilitation of sport activities for social development, of local volunteer trained facilitators, working in two sport for development and peace projects in South Africa and Namibia. A review of theory and research literature on democratic citizenship and peacebuilding provides a context for hearing and understanding the facilitators’ voices. This thesis shows what selected facilitators experienced and learned through participation in these community based projects, and situates their perspectives on how their sport for development and peace projects facilitated global and local belonging, democratic citizenship engagement, and peacebuilding. These counternarratives based on lived experience contribute to critical anti-colonial approaches to understanding sport for development and peace in rural Southern Africa.

Tanja Urbancic is a secondary school teacher (physical education, French and Social Studies) and an M.A. Candidate in Curriculum Teaching and Learning at the Department of Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Aside from teaching and coaching, Tanya has spent some time in the field of community development as a facilitator and project coordinator for various sport for development and peace projects in the Caribbean and Southern Africa. As a result, her research interests include bridging the gap between sport for development and education, and identifying spaces for both formal and non-formal education opportunities.

Imagining Future Friendly Schools: Preparing Students for a VUCA World

Michael Furdyk, Co-founder and Director of Innovation at TakingITGlobal

Michael Furdyk will share with us his 15 years of work at TakingITGlobal in working with schools to develop relevant, authentic, deep global learning. He'll explore digital tools and resources that educators can use to bring complex issues into the classroom, highlight success stories, and engage in a conversation with us about how students can be engaged in their learning through real-world problem solving.

Michael Furdyk is co-founder and Director of Innovation at TakingITGlobal, a charity he co-founded in 1999 during his last year as a high school student. He is focused on helping educators and schools around the world use technology effectively to drive global citizenship and student engagement. Michael is an Adjunct Professor for the Masters program in Education Technology at Long Island University, and was recently named by the Qatar Foundation as one of 50 Global "Makers and Shakers" of EdTech.

PRESENTATION

Tuesday November 1, 2016 । 4:30-6:00 pm Chair: Dr. Jack Quarter

MAKING SPACE FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE MIDWIFERY MOVEMENT

Keita Demming, PHD, LHAE, OISE

I contend that the emerging field of social innovation is at risk of “social innovation washing”— organizations capitalizing on the trend of social innovation, rather than actually innovating. The current discourse is loaded with language and approaches that suggest market-force solutions to social change and largely ignore the notion that each time we attempt social innovation we evoke a site of struggle. I draw on literature that is grounded in understanding society from a lens of domination over others to propose a strategic approach to social innovation as an alternative to current conceptualization of the term. The thesis explores the question, how can social innovation be understood or used as a strategic or intentional approach to social change? I use a reflective and iterative approach to conceptualize social innovation. The thesis argues that for agents to achieve social innovation they need free spaces where they can co-develop their collective identity. Next, agents need to transform current spatial and social practices, existing stances, and finally, the extent to which they can be autonomous or dependent on the existing system. The thesis explored, midwifery communities in Trinidad and Ontario and proposed a model that forefronts the production and reproduction of space as being integral to creating the conditions for generating social innovation.

Dr. Keita Demming can be described as an innovation researcher, learning strategist, process designer, evaluator, and consultant. With almost 15 years’ experience working in the area of strategic social innovation, Dr. Demming has developed many reports, programs, frameworks or strategic documents for and with his collaborators. For his doctoral thesis he explored the question, how might we move from aspirational social innovation to strategic social innovation? For his case study, he decided to use midwifery as an exemplary case of social innovation. In his thesis, he developed a framework for determining if organizations were social innovating or merely aspiring or claiming to be social innovating. Dr. Demming has worked internationally and in a variety of sectors within the field of social innovation.

REPRESENTATIONS OF MUSLIM CULTURES AND SOCIETIES IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AS A CURRICULUM RESOURCE FOR ONTARIO CLASSROOMS: PROMISES AND PROSPECTS

Antum A. Panjwani, PhD Candidate, CTL/CIDEC/OISE

In response to a dire need to confront Islamophobia and racism, this qualitative research examines the paradigmatic chains of curriculum perceptions pertaining to Muslim children’s literature as rooted in relations between Islam and the West within the understanding of a Muslim child, answering the question: How can Ontario curriculum be enriched with curriculum resources comprising of Muslim children's literature? Inclusion of children’s literature reflecting Muslim cultures and societies as a curriculum resource and nurturing of Muslim perspectives offer rich promises and prospects for a robust curriculum.

Antum A. Panjwani is a teacher originally from India having a wide range of teaching experience across countries and cultures. She has also served NGOs in voluntary capacity, internationally. Her specialization is in English literature and ESL. Her journey at OISE began with M.A. in Ed. Admin. Antum’s presentation here is from her doctoral research in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development. Currently she is on an assignment in Dubai as the Director of Academic Affairs.

Shared E-book Reading in a Children’s Museum: Discovery of Family Interactions

Melania Chwyl, PhD Student, CTL/CIDEC

The purpose of this qualitative study using a constructivist grounded theory design was to inform theoretical understanding of family interactions around e-books at a children’s museum. The intent was to contribute an e-book to a selection of children’s print books in an exhibit and to identify main patterns of parent/caregiver-child interactions, focusing on the role of parents or caregivers in initiating or discouraging use of the e-book and in facilitating interaction during children’s engagement with the e-book. Describing patterns of parent/caregiver interactions aids educators and educational theorists in better understanding family experiences with shared e-book reading and the potential for e-books to enable joint media engagement in children’s museums.

Melania Chwyl is a doctoral student in the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto. At OISE, she is affiliated with the Comparative International Development Education (CIDE) collaborative program. Melania's research areas include joint media engagement, children's e-books, and children's museums as sites of learning.

“Co-creating Resilient Communities: An Ethnobiographical Approach to Anticolonial Community Learning and Reorganization”

Yessica Rostan, SJE, MA Student

What role does ethnobiology or biocultura (the humxn relationship to the Self, each Other and Nature as “living”) play in anticolonial social justice movements and pedagogies? How can an ethnobiological lens engage and mobilize settlers, diaspora and immigrants in solidarity action within Canada’s settler colonial context to centre individual and community wellness, sustainability, and resilience? This thesis builds a praxis of community reorganization through an ethnobiological anticolonial (EBA) lens by looking at community education that works towards building sustainable communities that centre wellness (culturally, socially, environmentally, economically). It grounds theory through my experiences in youth work and speaks to the possibilities and challenges of centring EBA. The paper concludes that in the current historical moment, an ethnobiological lens to anticolonialism is important for transformative pedagogies and meaningful community reorganization as well as building solidarity between movements, co-creating spaces that are healing, and strengthening community resilience.

Yessica Rostan is a Uruguayan-born immigrant to Turtle Island. She completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Guelph before heading into the OISE Social Justice Education program. She co-creates biocultura with diaspora, immigrant and refugee youth in Toronto schools and community centres.

PRESENTATION

Friday November 25, 2016 । 12 noon-1:00 pm Chair: Dr. Kathy Bickmore

Human Rights and Schooling: developing a framework for justice and peace

Dr. Audrey Osler, University College of Southeast Norway and University of Leeds, UK

Across the globe, a common educational policy goal within democratic nation-states is the strengthening of democracy and human rights. Yet recent developments in Europe, including responses to the arrival of large numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers, reveal a significant gap between human rights rhetoric and human rights practice across the continent. The fall-out from the Brexit vote is a reminder of the fragility of democracy and the dangers of populism. It is also a reminder of the limitations and weaknesses of current education frameworks, including those of citizenship education and multicultural education, when citizens are confronted with fear-mongering, prejudice, misinformation, scapegoating, xenophobia and racism. In this talk, I discuss the political context in which we are working and the need to renew our efforts to promote justice and peace through schooling. I will argue that education for equity needs to be strengthened by an explicit human rights framework. I will explore the potential of drawing on postcolonial theory and narrative to support us in achieving our goals.

Dr Audrey Osler is Professor of Education at University College of Southeast Norway and University of Leeds, UK, where she was founding director of the Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights Education. Dr Osler researches social justice and cosmopolitan citizenship in established democracies and post-conflict societies and is widely published, including 19 books: the latest is Human Rights and Schooling: an ethical framework for teaching for social justice (Teachers College Press, 2016).

Inter-religious Dialogue and Education: Three Historic Encounters between Christianity and Chinese Religions

Education has been associated with religion in most civilizations. Thus the medieval universities of Europe developed in close relation to the Christian Church, while higher education in Chinese civilization was profoundly influenced by Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist values. Three historic points of encounter between China and Europe in the 7th, 16th and 19th centuries are explored, when core educational values from each civilization had a profound and transformative experience of interaction. This chapter seeks to draw lessons from history on how respectful dialogue among religions can enrich education even under circumstances of geo-political imbalance or threat.

Ruth Hayhoe is a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her professional engagements in Asia included foreign expert at Fudan University (1980-1982), Head of the Cultural Section of the Canadian Embassy in Beijing (1989-1991) and Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (1997-2002). Recent books include Canadian Universities in China’s Transformation: An Untold Story (2016) and China Through the Lens of Comparative Education (2015).

Faith-based low-fee private schools and School Leadership in Kenya and Haiti.

Pressures to meet the mandates of international agendas such as the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have seen governments in several developing countries expand access to public schooling with the introduction of free primary education. This expansion however has been fraught with fiscal and administrative challenges. Recently, the rapid expansion of particularly “low-fee” or “low-cost” private schools catering to low-income families has complicated the discussion. However, what has been less examined in this context is the rise and role of school leader entrepreneurs who start these schools, particularly those starting faith-based schools. Based upon research in Kenya and Haiti, we start by providing a descriptive overlay of private-public education in these contexts. Further, we examine some of the tensions and paradoxes around the private provision of education for the poor namely by school proprietors and principals who draw on local and international social capital, and in particular how they negotiate issues of profit and philanthropy. Co-authored with Steve Sider, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Wilfrid Laurier University.

The Internationalization of religious higher education: A comparative study of Christian Universities in South Korea and Canada

Although many faith-based institutions of higher learning are guided by their Christian faith as declared in their mission statements, many of their programs and policy initiatives often mirror the trends and policy imperatives of their secular counterparts. This is seen quite strongly in processes of internationalization. However, much of this appears to be driven by the Christian belief of global missions, often motivated by biblical imperatives to spread the good news of Christianity. This presentation will comparatively explore the historical background of Christian Higher Education in both South Korea and Canada and its role it has played in the field of higher education. Furthermore, it will discuss the historical and current theories of globalization, internationalization and Christian world missions. Finally, it will look at the contexts of the internationalization activities of Christian Higher Education through institutional case studies in South Korea and Canada.

The presentation examines the role of English in the post-colonial multilingual societies, its projection as a language of emancipation and the consequences of its dominance. It is noted that in post-colonial societies, the privileged position of English in education has led to elite formation and social exclusion resulting in ‘a new caste system'. Our research on school practices in teaching of English in India shows that the complex challenges of negotiating the linguistic double divide lead to divergent pedagogic practices and compromises in the standards of English in schools. English in the post-colonial societies is linked to social stratification and widening of the gap between the English-rich and the English-poor. It is argued that, for English to promote social justice and to be a healer language not a killer language, multilingual societies need egalitarian language-in-education policy and practice relocating English in a framework of multilingual education.